Information Technology Policy

An International History

Edited by Richard Coopey

Sets the history of computing in its broader economic and social context

Recounts and evaluates governmental IT policies

Assumes a comparative approach, examining IT policies in a number of countries including Japan, the US, and Europe.

Critically examines the relationship between military and civil technological systems

Information Technology Policy

An International History

Edited by Richard Coopey

Description

This book brings together a series of country-based studies to examine, in depth, the nature and extent of IT policies as they have evolved from a complex historical interaction of politics, technology, institutions, and social and cultural factors. In doing so many key questions are critically examined. Where can we find successful examples of IT policy? Who has shaped policy? Who did governments turn to for advice in framing policy?

Several chapters outline the impact of military influence on IT. What is the precise nature of this influence on IT development? How closely were industry leaders linked to government programs and to what extent were these programs, particularly those aimed at the generation of 'national champions',
misconceived through undue special pleading? How effective were government personnel and politicians in assessing the merits of programs predicated on technological trajectories extrapolated from increasingly complex and specialized information?

This book will be of interest to academics and graduate students of Management Studies, History, Economics, and Technology Studies, and Government and Corporate policy makers engaged with technology policy.

Information Technology Policy

An International History

Edited by Richard Coopey

Table of Contents

1. Information Technology Policy: A Global Historical Survey, Richard Coopey2. The Shifting Interests of the United States Government in the Development and Diffusion of Information Technology Since 1943, Arthur Norberg3. The Supply of Information Technology Workers: A History of Policy and Practice in the United States, William Aspray4. Public Policies, Private Platforms: Anitrust and American Computing, Steven W. Usselman5. Beat IBM: Cooperation and Competition Inside Japanese Computer Promotion, Seiichiro Yonekura6. Empire and Technology: Information Technology Policy in Postwar Britain and France, Richard Coopey7. From National Champions to Little Ventures: The NEB and the Second Wave of IT in Britain, 1975-1985, Martin Campbell-Kellyand Ross Hamilton8. The Influence of the Dutch and EU Government Policy on Philips' IT Product Strategy, Jan Van Den Ende, Nachoem Wijnberg, and Albert Meijer9. Politics, Business, and European Technology Polic: From the Treaty of Rome to Unidata, 1958-75, Eda Kranakis10. ESPRIT: Europe's Response to US and Japanese Dominance in Information Technology, Dimitris Assimakopoulos, Rebecca Marschan-Piekkari, and Stuart Macdonald11. The Rise and Fall of State IT Planning: or How Norwegian Planners Became Captains of Industry, Knut Sogner12. Facing In, Facing Out: IT Production Policy in India from the 1960s to the 1990s, Richard Heeks13. IT Policy in the USSR and Ukraine: Achievements and Failures, Boris Malinovski and Lev Malinovski14. Romania's
Hardware and Software Industry: Building IT Policy and Capabilities in a Transitional Economy, Richard Heeks and Mihaiela Grundey

Information Technology Policy

An International History

Edited by Richard Coopey

Author Information

Richard Coopey is Senior Research Fellow at the Business History Unit, London School of Economics, where he has been working since 1996 on the Warwick/LSE ESRC-funded project on IT policy history in postwar Britain. He is the co-author of 3i: Fifty Years Investing in Industry (OUP, 1995).